Maybe I'll do that. I had fed those before but the tetras would fight over them. As in spit them out and others would grab them. As I said I just wasn't sure the cories were getting enough to eat.
What do you think I might be dealing with here?
- Thread starter SCM_2123
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Hello; As the thread plays out it seems you are already doing good things. I really do not have better guesses as to the basic problem(s). At this point I and others are making suggestions which amount to treating the symptoms and not necessarily the cause. Sort of like what a doctor does most of the time. Treat the symptoms and let the body do the healing.
I tend to sprinkle some food in the filter outflow so it swirls around and gets pushed to the bottom feeders, but i don't ever find uneaten food down there. Some have said their fish don't seem to prefer the nls pellets and spit them out a lot, but my opinion is if they are hungry they will get used to them, and it's about nutrition, not taste.
Sorry I got a bit off topic, that ammonia is a problem. Glad it's going down, but you somehow have got your cycle messed up. Don't change all your filter media at once, usually do a water change, save some of the tank water and rinse the sponge in it. always condition your tap water, any chlorine or chloramine can kill off the good bacteria that break down the ammonia and nitrite.
I'll do another change tonight and will rinse the media in the tank water. I always condition my tap water.
Current parameters. The fish mostly look better except for the eyes on two of the Congo tetras. They are still swimming and eating like normal. I couldn't get the numbers to be legible but yellow is 0. I currently have some fish in quarantine that I was hoping to put into the tank this weekend. Should I hold off?
Hello; Some assumptions have been made. Possibly correct but not known for sure. One such, mine, is that the medications added to the tank are what killed off the BB. If correct such means the BB colonies will need to be reestablished essentially from scratch. Depending on your actions this can take several weeks. I go back to you somehow getting a starter culture of BB from somewhere. That being getting some colonies of bb from an established aquarium. Maybe snails if you like snails as i suspect the BB could be on the shells. I am not so confident that plants hold BB colonies. Any solid object from an old tank ought the have the BB. The BB are sessile which I understand means they form sticky colonies on surfaces. My take is they are not in the water to any great degree, so old tank water is not likely to be useful. Getting a starter culture can speed things up.
Another assumption, not mine, is by throwing out the detritus loaded filter floss that too much of the BB are removed. The notion being you are getting an ammonia spike because a significant portion of the BB are suddenly removed. If this is the case there will be plenty of BB on other surfaces of the tank to both rebuilt the numbers and continuee to eat up the ammonia & nitrite.
(Note- you can get ammonia spikes other ways. A common way is to add a lot of new small fish or a few big fish. New fish = more ammonia. A thing to keep in mind is the BB will come into balance with the amount of ammonia present. Kepp a steady amount (biomass) of fish and the BB population will match that. Over feed and the decay process will add some ammonia. Add or remove fish and the BB population adjusts. An ongoing process.)
I do not think you have an ammonia spike at this point.
Regardless I think you need to keep up an accelerated WC schedule or be willing to sacrifice the current fish in order to enhance the "fish-in" cycle method. Sadly, the affected fish are damaged to a degree already.
Around ten years ago a 55 gallon tank kept having outbreaks of what I think was a cyanobacteria algae. Formed sheets of algae which would cover everything. I finally broke the tank down. Took all the fish out into buckets. Put the gravel and all other equipment in buckets and soaked in a Clorox solution. Put the plants in a bucket with an antibiotic solution. Filled the tank and put Clorox in the water.
Put it all back together after doing lots and lots and lots of rinsing of gravel and all. Added plants and some doses of PRIME. Threw in some snails from a clean tank for the first few days. When temps and such were normal added fish a few at a time while also throwing in a sponge filter from a clean tank. I hope you do not face that much work. I still wonder about long term residuals from the medication or some other factor not yet discovered.
Another assumption, not mine, is by throwing out the detritus loaded filter floss that too much of the BB are removed. The notion being you are getting an ammonia spike because a significant portion of the BB are suddenly removed. If this is the case there will be plenty of BB on other surfaces of the tank to both rebuilt the numbers and continuee to eat up the ammonia & nitrite.
(Note- you can get ammonia spikes other ways. A common way is to add a lot of new small fish or a few big fish. New fish = more ammonia. A thing to keep in mind is the BB will come into balance with the amount of ammonia present. Kepp a steady amount (biomass) of fish and the BB population will match that. Over feed and the decay process will add some ammonia. Add or remove fish and the BB population adjusts. An ongoing process.)
I do not think you have an ammonia spike at this point.
Regardless I think you need to keep up an accelerated WC schedule or be willing to sacrifice the current fish in order to enhance the "fish-in" cycle method. Sadly, the affected fish are damaged to a degree already.
Around ten years ago a 55 gallon tank kept having outbreaks of what I think was a cyanobacteria algae. Formed sheets of algae which would cover everything. I finally broke the tank down. Took all the fish out into buckets. Put the gravel and all other equipment in buckets and soaked in a Clorox solution. Put the plants in a bucket with an antibiotic solution. Filled the tank and put Clorox in the water.
Put it all back together after doing lots and lots and lots of rinsing of gravel and all. Added plants and some doses of PRIME. Threw in some snails from a clean tank for the first few days. When temps and such were normal added fish a few at a time while also throwing in a sponge filter from a clean tank. I hope you do not face that much work. I still wonder about long term residuals from the medication or some other factor not yet discovered.
I don't have access to another tank except my quarantine tank which is much newer than the current one. According to the tests this morning the parameters are healthy. For now the fish in the quarantine tank will remain. I got them before this latest debacle started. It would make sense removing filters caused some of this. Any medicine residue should be gone by now.
Hello; I do not know about how the medicines listed persist or not. Some which have copper based ingredients do persist and kill of invertebrate's is my understanding. Gues knowing about this will play out over time.
I figure the conditions are better mainly because of the increased WC. Again treating a symptom and something probably needs to be continued for a time. Keep up a heavy WC schedule for a while.
I have a Wal-Mart brand HOB on a 55. It has two filter chambers with slots for a detritus collecting filter media and a second slot for a grid which I figure is a media for BB to grow on in each slot. Every so often I remove the detritus media and toss it from one chamber only. I leave the BB media alone. I leave the tubes and chamber of the HOB alone. I replace the filter media which is loaded with fish poop and other decomposing stuff. Some weeks later I do the same for the other chamber. To me swishing old poop loaded media in tank water and putting it back is something like taking a shower and putting my dirty underwear back on. Not exactly the same of course.
I do not think your issue is from throwing away old filter media unless you scrub the entire HOB at the same time. The BB are sessile and it is my understanding the colonies are not easily washed off surfaces. They likely can survive a rinse ( do not use tap water) but not a scrub.
But my stance overall is we each get to run our tanks anyway we want. We also get to pick which advice to follow. I will not be offended by whatever you do.
